As previously advised, I am standing down as President at tomorrow’s AGM and will also drop off the Committee. After 7 years on the Committee, including one as Vice President and four as President, and doubling as voluntary Manager for the past 5 years, it’s time for me to step back and hand the reins over to others on the incoming Committee. As a result, this will be my last Friday Flash, and probably about the 220^th one that I have written. Unfortunately googles spam filters have prevented me from emailing it out, as they have with other recent ones (but they are on the Members page of our website if anyone wants to look them up).

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the current and past Committee members who have supported me in my roles, and all our current and former staff who I have had the pleasure of working with. Similarly, I would like to thank all those members who have volunteered their time to attend to various tasks around the clubhouse and out on the course, and to those who have responded to the capital appeals we have run from time to time. Thanks also to the regular contributors to this weekly newsletter.

I hope a good number of you will be able to come to the AGM tomorrow. The club is only as strong as its members, and needs input from a broad base of the membership to be able to thrive. We will be reviewing our performance over the past year, giving an update on our proposed land sale, tabling our plans for the 2020 Club Programme, electing Committee members for 2020, voting on a Notice of Motion, and discussing any general business that members may wish to raise.

All the documents for the AGM are on the front page of our website, which you can access without having to log in. From the Annual Report, and the accompanying Financial Statements, you will see that we generated a trading surplus for the past financial year, being the 5^th year in a row that we have done so. However, it is down on last year, and as staff costs rise, and playing numbers decline, the incoming Committee will face a number of challenges. Please give them your full support.

This Weekend’s Events

Tomorrow’s AGM starts at 9.30am. Please arrive in time for a prompt start, and for a complimentary tee or coffee beforehand. Following the AGM we will hold a stableford tournament, with foursomes to be determined by a disc draw.

On Sunday it is the Shootout final for both the men and the women. With only 11 would-be gunslingers vying for the men’s title, and even less women for theirs, the women will tee off from hole 10 at 10am and the men will follow at 10.30. As a result, could those of you not contesting the shootout but planning to tee off between 8.00 and 10.00 on Sunday, please start on hole 10 so that you don’t catch up with the gunslingers.

Starting on Sunday, being the first of December, are the Miners Arms and the Summer Eclectics. The Miners Arms is a pairs event, open to both men and women members, played on a 4BBB stableford basis, with each pair having to complete one such round in each of December, January and February, with each round to be nominated before the start of the round. The winning pair will be that pair with the most stablefords scored over the 3 rounds.

The idea of the eclectic is to record your best score for each hole that you achieve over the summer months. The winner is then the player with the lowest net score at the end of February, being the total of all their best scores for each hole less the average of their handicap at the start of December and at the end of February.

Upcoming Events

On Saturday 7 December our women’s Saturday Club will be having their closing day, beginning with a Russian Roulette stableford event, followed by their prize giving. On the same day, the men Monthly Medal winners for the year will be competing for the title of Top Dog.

The following Saturday (ie Dec 14) will be the club’s official closing day (although we don’t really close!) at which we will hold some sort of team event following by prize giving. Watch out for more details about this.

Also later this month we will likely begin to hold trials for next year’s men’s interclub teams. If you are interested in playing interclub, please let the club know.

Women’s Tuesday Club

The 9 hole ladies enjoyed sunny but windy conditions on Tuesday. We played a nett game on the front 9. Our convincing winner was Susan Wright with a nett 33, followed by Loreen Brehaut on 37 and Kath Robinson on 38.

On Wednesday, a group of golfers (plus our lovely lunch provider, Anita) met for a Christmas lunch at The Thistle Inn. It was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Men’s Wednesday Club

The turnout for this week's competition was disappointingly low with only 23 members. Perhaps the windy Wellington put off people from venturing out to the course. Again, the condition of the golf course was magnificent and many players had a good score.

We also welcomed the youngest member into the club. He is George Morris, a KGC office staff member over the University holiday.

The winner of the day was Nobby with a score of 38 while Paul Hawkes and Keith Gaskin had a score of 36 as runners up. Due to a small number of members present, we could distribute prizes down to 35 points only. Other players who won the prize are all with 35 points: Ian Bates, George Morris, John McDougall, and John Stubbe. There were 2 Two's: Luke Underwood and Paul and the bunny went to Keith Atkinson.

Please note that the Wednesday prizes are now either a golf ball or a packet of 3 Rocher chocolates.

For raffles, the winners were Mike Cox, Dave Ainsworth and Keith Gaskin.

Please note that all Wednesday club holders of trophies, please bring them with you by next Wednesday so that we can engrave your names. This is in preparation for the Annual Awards day on 11 Dec. As usual, please make sure that you arrive early on 11 Dec because we will start at 10:30 am in time for an afternoon snack.

Harcourts Twilight

Twilight attendance reached a season high last night with 25 golfers revelling in the conditions. Mark Graham and John Haywood returned to the clubhouse with 26 Stablefords. A little way back were Peter Alkema and Terry Bastion on 23, followed by Doug Calhoun, Graeme Couper and Ryan Day on 21. In fourth place were Geoff Lee, John Stubbe and Karen Simcox on 20. Irene Murphy played the most golf. Geoff Lee and John Haywood both scored 2s, while John also took out the NTP. There are only 3 nights left to go before Xmas, so come and join us if you are after some chilled out golf and a great BBQ!

So that’s it from me

But I’m not going anywhere, and will continue to work with the Committee for a while to help close out various projects, including the land sale. I hope to play a bit more golf than I have been managing lately, but I’ve also got a lot of personal projects I want to progress. As Ben Hogan once said, "As you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, for you only get to play one round." I will though be available to help out on working bees and to provide back up cover for any of the roles that I’ve been doing during my Committee tenure. To all the regular readers of this column, thanks for taking the time to do so - I hope you’ve found it informative and useful.

Happy golfing, play safely, best wishes for Christmas and the New Year, Jono